A Twin Dance of Death
by Scoperous
Summary: A decision made out of boredom results in Naruto's soul being inexpliacbly changed. It warps into something that will grant him security against the oncoming storm of death. But will it be enough to save him from his enemies and... himself? MassEdit soon


**ADDITION: I edited a lot of redundancies and expanded a little bit… this is why I've got to remember to actually edit what I write…. Shoots Self**

(2/3/08)

So if you've read my profile you know I've been whacked off for a few days and am pretty bushed. As a result I wasn't able to finish Ch. 3 for Primus and am going to do the first chapter of A Twin Dance of Death instead.

I really like the concept for this story and just want to know what you guys think. Send a review and virtual Advil when you're done!

Disclaimer: Did you know that Axel is actually Naruto's dad? No you say? Well he would be if I owned Naruto.

XD

**A Twin Dance of Death**

_A Random Edge Production_

Chapter One: Bump in the Night

The rain fell hard on Terra. It swamped the world in a cool blanket of white noise. Droplets pounded relentlessly on the pavement of a lonely street, in a lonely city, on a small pinprick of a world on the face of creation. It was almost as if the rain looked to break through the cracked pavement and into the rough natural earth below. Forever, it would be seeking to rejoin its natural dueling partner, the earth and the rain.

Water was building in the gutters before spilling forth into thin quivering streams that fell gently to the paved city streets. The raw destructive power of the elements being shafted once more by the fearful humans of the ground. It held a dark humor to the world weary being standing in the rain. Relentless assaults from the sky, no matter strong, when redirected would be nothing more then a pathetic drip. It was pathetically infuriating.

Yet still the water was beautiful; the sound of the rain falling against all manner of materials, its mournful chorus at it slipped down gutters, and the soft filter it created for assassins. Car hoods, rooftops, the occasional dog, people hurrying about their business on main streets, the relentless outpouring of water drenched all. While all through out the soft pats of rain beat a rhythm into everything tied to the earth. Only those inside were spared from the chilling cold and clinging wetness of the storm. Those who were outside were wishing they were inside.

A car horn blared through the white noise and somewhere in the distance a dog barked, mistaking the car horn for the cry of another of its kind. A man swore as he ran inside his home, newspaper covering his head. Cars moved along the street in a silent convoy, the slight splashing of water the only sign of them having been there at all. And still the figure did not move, gaze intent on the small two-storey house.

Fog lights shone across the front of the house and the figure still did not move. The fog lights illuminated the place where the figure stood.

The man in the car blinked and for a split second the world disappeared from view. When his eyes opened he saw an empty driveway before him. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Not a piece of grass seemed out of place and the rain was just as cold and wet as before.

The car pulled into the house's driveway and the engine murmured something in the language of machines. Another car seemed to respond when the rough coughing of a muffler cut lazily through the symphony of the rain. The man sighed and ran his hand through his brown hair. His glasses rested askew on his nose and he didn't bother to correct them. It was then that his eyes wandered to looking off into the night sky, remembering.

He was just turning 23 and was fresh out of university. He had his degree and was soon to be working full time at the emergency ward in central city. The grades he scored were some of the best in the country. He had worked hard and was finally getting caught up in the nicer things in life.

That was when he remembered her .He remembered the dance, the kiss, and what happened when they both realized how late it was. He remembered laughing with her and talking with her. He remembered when they had first met. It hadn't been lovey dovey or any of that. It had been like an explosion.

He had just arrived at the central city hospital and his friend, Lucas, had insisted that they go clubbing that night to celebrate him getting his first real job. Lucas had told him that they would be meeting some of his friends downtown. They had soon left work and met up with the group.

The first thing she did when she saw him was knock him out. He to this day doesn't know why but she did and that was that. They had met several times more and each time seemed to be even more violent than the last.

So naturally it was a surprise to all involved when they started going out.

The cold snapped him out of his daydreaming long enough for him to open the car door and let himself out. He shivered as he locked the door and turned to walk up the path. From the corner of his eye he caught the image of a shadowed figure standing in the rain on the other side of the street. A cigarette glowed in the figure's mouth. Long black hair hid his face from view and he was only wearing winter coat accompanied by a scarf wrapped around his neck. The rain had drenched the figure and he seemed to be staring at the ground despairingly.

The man considered calling out to the figure but decided against beckoning to him. It was much, much too wet and cold out to be letting strangers into his house. The funny thing is, a voice in the back of his mind told him, most people don't even need to use a key to get inside. All you need is a rock and you can get into any home you want. Deciding that he didn't really want to listen to the small voice he brushed it aside. Shaking his head fitfully, the man walked up to his door.

He turned the key in the lock and sighed as he heard it click comfortably. Finally pushing his glasses up on his nose, the man let the door open slowly and stepped inside. He closed the door behind him and he began to take off his jacket. When he had pulled his arms out of the slim fitting sleeves, he hung the coat on its rack and proceeded down the narrow hall of his house. He opened a door to his left and set a course straight for the silver coffee maker in his kitchen. Soon enough he had begun making himself a cup the good black stuff.

As he waited he drummed a little rhythm on the counter while pondering the beauty of the caffeinated drink.He briefly considered drinking it outside on the second floor balcony but quickly disregarded the notion.

It had nothing to do with the figure or the rain, he reassured himself mentally.

The coffee machine beeped and he sighed as he contentedly took a warm mug of the dark brown liquid in his hands. The coffee was a kind of comforting warmth in his cold clammy hands. His coffee was black and he was proud of it. Most people didn't like their coffee like that but he loved being an exception to the rule, all rules in fact. Perhaps it was a spark of his ancient teenage rebellion.

He scoffed; they obviously had no idea what they were missing…. He finished his little rhythm with a _Tat tattat ta_!

Walking out into the hall he was surprised to find there was a breeze coming from the door. He turned and his heart skipped a beat. His door was wide open and standing in front of it was the figure from the street.

The man's cigarette was still smoldering in between his clenched teeth. A long silence permeated the stand off with only the wind acting as background music. The warm coffee suddenly didn't seem so comforting. Its allure had been lost as soon as man from the street appeared in his doorway. Quickly though his mind turned to thoughts of rational escape. The stairs to his bedroom were right behind him and if he made a run for it he might be able to get to a phone. The living room was too close to the door and the bathroom didn't have a phone, obviously. Perhaps he could throw the coffee cup at the other man….

As soon as the thought crossed his mind the figure reached into his jacket. He pulled out a silver semi-automatic pistol. It was ornate and seemed to have vines and faces molded into the side. Small red dots glared out at him from the side of the gun. Eyes, his mind thought absently, they look like little red glowing eyes. The gun was leveled in his direction without as much as a ruffling of the figure's coat. A lone red symbol was engraved on the end of the gun. It flashed between different symbols and abruptly ended on one.

His mind vaguely remembered the language being called Kanji or something like that. Without warning, his mind began processing the letter. A single thought, a breath of comprehension dawned on him. It meant _death._

The spell cast by the strange stand off broke. Eyes widening, hands shaking, he fell backwards in an effort to get away from the figure holding the gun. His coffee spilled across the floor and stained the hard wood. The mug shattered as it hit the ground and he tried desperately to crawl away, cutting his hands in the process. The coffee dripped all over the floor, slowly spreading out into a deep dark pool. It almost reminded him of the way blood pooled in the movies.

Before he could even blink the end of the barrel was pressed against his forehead. It felt cool and he wondered vaguely if that's how all guns feel when pushed against your head. He decided to speak as he saw the figure grin at him.

"W-wh-o are you?" he asked, his voice shaking with fear and anxiety.

The figure's grin widened, cigarette now threatening to fall from his mouth. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

With that the gun went off. His life didn't pass before his eyes he didn't see all of his loved ones standing together looking at him serenely. He just saw blackness and then was gone.

It kept raining.

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It was raining in Konoha. The sky had just opened up and started crying at about noon. Dark clouds moved in and covered the city in a perpetual shadow of darkness. It was an eerie rain. The clouds had just seemed to appear out of nowhere and flooded the skies. They had hung ominously in the air for a few moments before the rain had started to fall. It wasn't very hard but it was still enough to convince Kakashi-sensei to postpone missions for the day, the lazy ass.

Naruto was sitting on his bed looking out the window in his room. Water droplets slipped slowly down the side of the glass before disappearing from his view. It was pretty cool even to Naruto's frequently distracted mind. That said, normally Naruto would be running around or training but currently he was engrossed in his own thoughts, and the window. His thoughts had a lot to do with his new team and his hectic graduation.

He had joined team seven two days ago and taken the bell test yesterday. They had only barely been able to pass Kakashi-sensei's psycho assault relatively unscathed. Naruto was still miffed that his sensei seemed to think he was a worthless bum. At least that was the impression Naruto had picked up from Kakashi. It wasn't like he had done badly either!

Sure Kakashi had stuck his fingers, painfully up Naruto's ass but that didn't mean anything! Naruto grimaced and kept repeating that in his head. _It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything. _Naruto groaned loudly in annoyance and rolled over on his bed. Ideas floated lazily across Naruto's mind as he tried to focus on thinking. Maybe he should get some kind of Kakashi dummy to practice beating up on. Naruto looked into the corner of his room and was reminded that he actually had one.

His mind wandered from the effigy of his teacher to Iruka-sensei and his graduation. It was really ironic that one of those who hated him had been the reason he graduated. If Mizuki ever figured that out he'd probably go insane! Naruto tried to laugh. It came out as a muffled choking sound. Anyone outside his room could easily mistake it for a cat being crushed by a rolling pin.

The blonde ninja suddenly sat upright and walked over to his closet. Sure it may have been raining outside but inside it was hot, stuffy, cramped and… well there were probably other reasons but he was just too cooped up to notice! Naruto was just having problems thinking inside.

A dull sense of recognition ignited inside Naruto's soul just as his hand came to rest on the door handle. The feeling seemed familiar yet ancient. There was a long drawn out history of conflict but at the same time the brief feeling of a skirmish. He felt the feeling last for half a second.

It was quickly forgotten as his mind spun back into gear.

Opening his closet Naruto pulled out his sole other article of clothing besides his totally awesome orange jumpsuit. It was a long black and orange ditty that had cuffed sleeves and a pretty awesome hood. The main body was black while it was threaded with orange and had some weird emblems on it. He might've considered wearing it more often if it didn't have so much black in it. It was also pretty hot so… it wasn't really worth it to wear frequently.

Pulling it on causally Naruto did up the zip and the few stylized buckles on it. This would be his first time wearing it in public. He had tried it on occasionally but never worn it outside. He was actually debating if it could possibly be more awesome than his orange jumpsuit but it was probably a closed case. Orange does beat black every day of the week. He opened his front door and stepped outside. It was deftly locked behind him and he prepared to go to an empty training ground to uh… well… train or something….

That was the problem. Naruto wasn't actually sure what he wanted to do but he would find something, or something would find him. Maybe he'd run around for a bit in the rain and get some exercise, anything to not be inside.

With that though in mind Naruto turned away from his door and quickly began walking down the narrow halls of the apartment building. His ninja sandals made very little noise as he moved. He briefly wondered if he was the only one going crazy inside but quickly reminded himself that he happened to be a hyperactive perpetual bundle of orange fox tainted energy.

His soles slapped lightly on the carpeted floor. It was soothing to be moving again. Naruto looked at the door numbers absently as he walked _51,50,49…_ naturally the numbers kept going down the hall until the elevator for their floor. No one threw things or yelled when they heard him, if they heard him, coming down the hall. He wasn't harassed much by his neighbors. It was mostly because they usually ignored him, Naruto never knew why. He figured that if they hated him that much then they would've beaten him to death or something.

Naruto let out a low chuckle. That would be something right out of fanfiction!

Reaching the elevator Naruto hit the down arrow symbol and waited as patiently as he could for the elevator. That basically meant that he was tapping his feet impatiently to no particular rhythm. _Tat tatta Tat!_

The elevator dinged and Naruto stepped into the faded metal interior of his 'Super Awesome Uppy Downy thing' as he called it as a kid. The elevator door closed and soon it lurched into awkward downwards movement. The elevator quickly hit the bottom and the door popped open.

Naruto walked swiftly through the faded lobby and towards the large sliding doors.

He stopped in front of the doors and flipped up his hood casually. Naruto figured he would look pretty badass to anyone at that moment. As thoughts of Sakura-chan crooning over his total kick-assedness floated comfortingly through his mind they came to a grinding halt. It was one unfortunate fact that had stopped his pleasant day dream. Short people don't look good in long coats.

His shoulders slumped and he looked dejectedly out the window at the falling rain. Even if he was unnaturally short maybe he'd get bigger… eventually.

Naruto shuffled forwards and out past the large glass doors and into the falling rain.

It pelted heavily against his coat and Naruto suddenly found himself wondering about the jacket's water protection ability. Soon though, his fears were soothed by the total lack of wetness after five minutes of standing in the rain. Naruto then started to walk. He didn't really choose a direction; he just closed his eyes spun around in a circle and started walking.

It was probably a very silly thing to do but Naruto didn't worry about things like 'common sense.'

He made his way across the street he was on and kept walking in no particular direction. The rain continued to beat across the city streets and Naruto felt a chill wind gust beneath his rain coat. It created a barrier that separated normal senses from the rest of the world.

All Naruto could see was a stark, but strangely beautiful, landscape. His sense of smell, and hearing were blocked by the cacophony of sounds and the overwhelming smell of water and mixed scents. He could feel the water around him splashing against the concrete, not to mention the coldness that seemed to be perpetual. Even though this resulted in a somewhat uncomfortable surreal atmosphere it still seemed have a cool refreshing taste that Naruto secretly enjoyed.

As he pondered these things he was surprised when, upon looking up from the ground, saw a familiar building.

It was the ninja academy. It was where Naruto had met the first person to ever _really_ acknowledge him. Iruka… even some of his classmates had been there for him. He had a place here and now had a place on a ninja team. His life had prepared him for continued solitude in the academy but it hadn't been so.

He had made friends, kicked ass, and eaten a weird kind of food called pancakes of something. He had fallen in love with Sakura-chan, become friends/ eternal rivals with Sasuke, and been pulled out of his pit of misery. The ninja academy had been his light that pulled him out of his solitary life.

Naruto forced himself to remember the old man. The Sandaime Hokage of Konoha may have been the first to acknowledge Naruto but to him the old man was a pacifist. He had never played an active role in Naruto's life. The old man had been a role model but even his acknowledgment had felt _stale,_ like he wasn't really acknowledging this Naruto but instead a memory.

Looking at the academy brought Naruto's mind back even further to his first day. He remembered the half forgotten face of his first friend.

**Flashback No Jutsu**

_A young Naruto walked nervously through the gates leading to a rather large building. Its yard was full of slides, trees, grass, sandboxes, swings, and, most importantly, other kids! The ANBU member beside Naruto pushed the young blonde forwards slightly, as if to encourage him._

"_Come on Naruto-kun it's time for your first day at the academy. Don't you want to meet the other kids over there?" The ANBU asked kindly._

_The young Naruto looked up the significantly taller ANBU member with wide slightly teary eyes. "But ANBU-san won't they not want to play with me? No one likes me anyway…." Naruto trailed off and looked at the other kids forlornly._

_The ANBU smiled before removing his mask and crouching down to Naruto's level._

"_Look Naruto-kun, it's not that they don't like you it's that their parents have something against you." Naruto looked up at the ANBU member again, this time his eyes, though still teary, questioning. "I can't tell you what, but it's one of the things that make you such a strong person."_

_The ANBU chuckled ", and besides haven't I told you not to call be ANBU-san? It'll always be to you alright?"_

_Naruto nodded and smiled a true smile. It was a smile that was heart breaking in every sense of the word when it came from Naruto. It contained all the sadness that a human could endure before breaking but also a faint spark of a nearly forgotten hope. "'K…."_

"_Good. Now go see the other children and have fun okay?"_

_Naruto nodded happily and sped of to see the other children and hopefully make some new friends. ANBU-san would always be there for him and everything would be okay._

**End Flashback No Jutsu**

Naruto hadn't seen the ANBU again since. He could guess that the guy had gone off and done missions somewhere and that's why they didn't see each other anymore. Then again Naruto's memory wasn't that good so it' possible that they had run into each other before. He probably just wouldn't have recognized him.

Naruto stopped staring at the building just long enough to turn and walk through the gate that he had first entered at. It occurred briefly to Naruto that Iruka-sensei was probably inside teaching a bunch of gennin hopefuls. Naruto smiled a bit.

He had only passed the _real_ exam a little while ago and he was already feeling superior.

'_But you're not are you?_ A small voice quipped. _'There are probably gennin in that building that could take you on and win….'_

Naruto's fists clenched as more memories flooded back to him.

**Flashback No Jutsu**

_"Hello class, my name is Iruka. You, for the rest of the year, will call me by Iruka-sensei. But enough of the official talk I would like for you to all come up and introduce yourselves to the rest of the class?" This monologue cut like a knife through the racket in the small classroom and brought everyone to order, well almost everyone._

_One blonde shinobi in training was currently chatting up a storm with a very, very lazy looking boy. The lazy boy discreetly nudged Naruto with his foot to try and get him to stop. The blonde, startled by the unexpected contact, turned around to face a smiling teacher. The teacher's smile seemed fake to Naruto, like someone who was pissed off and hiding it poorly._

_The blonde scratched the back of his head sheepishly. " Eh heh heh… sorry Mr. Teacher guy…."_

_Iruka's eye twitched, he hadn't even been paying attention. "My name is Iruka you must call me Iruka-sensei and you're introducing yourself to the class first."_

_Iruka saw the lazy boy breathing a sigh of relief out of the corner of his eye. "And you'll introduce yourself next." Iruka said while pointing at the lazy boy. _

_As Iruka turned away he heard a mumbled 'troublesome' from the lazy boy._

_Naruto stood nervously at the front of the classroom looking very unsure of himself. "H-hello, my name is Uzumaki Naruto and…" Naruto looked at his teacher for help._

"_Just say something about your life… likes or dislikes." Iruka said shaking his head. _

_Naruto nodded, a look of intense resolve filling his eyes. "I'm going to be the next Hokage!" As he said the word Hokage he stuck his fist out in front of him. To his embarrassment the first chorus of deafening laughter reached his ears with the force of an angry demon fox (1)._

_Iruka sighed and looked at the blonde forlornly._

**End Flashback No Jutsu**

Naruto remembered vividly what happened next. They had finished the class introductions and gone outside to have a series of sparring matches. Each one of them had fought each other at least once and Naruto had lost every single time. He hadn't been able to beat anyone! Well, he had beaten Shikamaru but that was because he gave up right at the start of each match.

That had been the start of him being the eternal dead last of Konoha.

Rain continued to shatter the terse silence that Naruto built up every time his thoughts drifted. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to go out into the rain. He was quickly becoming depressed as he stood in the downpour.

Maybe seeing Iruka would actually be a good idea. Sure he could be in a class but getting his mind off some of the darker memories that Naruto was having would probably be a good idea. If Iruka was his normal brotherly self then Naruto would definitely get perked up visiting him.

Smiling slightly, Naruto walked through the gate and towards the glowing lights of the academy. His mind played the happiest moments of his life in the academy over and over.

As he walked underneath the overhang in front of the school, the constant sound of the rain seemed to dull and a strange new sound took its place. It was a strange humming sound that he hadn't noticed before when he was at the academy. It was almost like the sound of the rain but artificial. Naruto realized then that he missed the rain.

The blonde lowered his hood and walked in through the front doors of the school. The man at the secretarial desk looked up briefly before asking in a deep voice. "What can I do for you today?"

Naruto, startled at the man's lack of agitation talking to him answered. "Uhhh I'm an old student I just wanted to see him. Ya' know if he's busy?"

The man nodded. "He's in a class right now but chances are, with it raining like this, he's just trying to get them to do some text work." The desk cleric smirked ", we both know how crappy that stuff is eh shinobi-san?"

Naruto tried not to laugh. "Yeah tell me about it! So what class ya' think he'd be in?"

The secretary looked down at some papers in front of him. "Looks to be one sixty seven, so that's up the stairs and to the right if memory serves."

Naruto smiled at the man before walking off in the direction he'd pointed in. As he walked up the stairs he felt something tug at the back of his mind but tried to ignore it.

Turning left at the top Naruto quickly spotted Iruka's room. The door was open and the rustling of pages could be heard from outside the room. Naruto grinned his foxy grin; Iruka could still keep classes completely whipped.

Walking in front of the door Naruto poked his head in to see Iruka reading from a small black book at the teacher's desk. Naruto knocked and the noise echoed throughout the hall. Iruka looked up from his desk and stared at Naruto curiously for a second before smiling brightly. Iruka looked at Naruto questioningly before pushing back his chair to stand.

"Class," twenty heads snapped up at their teacher ",I'll be back in several minutes. Continue studying like the good shinobi I know you will become."

As he finished his speech several boys at the back of the class started to talk among themselves while trying to steal a glance at Iruka-sensai's visitor.

Noticing the seeds of noise being planted by the boys in the farthest rows of desks Iruka took pre-emptive action. The threat was in the form of a warning to his class. "If you guys get too loud then I'm going to personally make sure you all regret ever joining the ninja academy."

His threat dropped, Iruka closed the classroom door and looked at Naruto expectantly.

"What is it Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, slight wariness creeping into his voice.

"Well Naruto I would _love _to know what you're doing here interrupting one of my classes on a day when you _should _be with Kakashi."

Naruto scratched his head absently. "I just kinda started walking and ended up here so I decided to come check on you. Besides it's not like you were doing a lot in there."

Iruka gave Naruto a stern looking before alternating to nodding at Naruto thoughtfully. "So what about Kakashi?"

"He told us to go home today 'cause it was raining too hard to train."

Iruka frowned disapprovingly ", that's odd… he should've tried to get you to do stealth training or something to help you prepare for these kinds of conditions in missions."

"He is a really lazy ass though."

Iruka's contemplative look turned stern again. "Now Naruto haven't we talked about the respect you should show to your sensei?"

"Yeah but Kakashi-sensei is so lazy! He's always late and is… aghhhh! He's such an asshole!" Naruto pulled at his hair as if to emphasize his point.

Iruka sweat dropped. "Your opinion is this strong after two days with him?"

"He makes a really bad first impression." Naruto said sagely.

"Heh, I see. But what's with your new coat Naruto? It doesn't seem like something you'd normally wear."

"This thing?" Naruto said, gesturing at the coat. "It's been in my closet for… I dunno probably… ummm a long time I guess…." Naruto was stroking his chin thoughtfully while making a show of being totally contemplative.

Needless to say Iruka had to forcibly stop himself from sighing in exasperation. "If you say so Naruto," Iruka looked up smiling. "I'll be done in about two hours so how about around then we go out and get some ramen and you can tell me about how you passed Kakashi's bell test!"

Naruto nodded so enthusiastically his head was a blur but somehow managed to verbalize a question. "What about the rain Iruka-sensei?"

"We'll worry about that when the time comes." Iruka's eyes shifted to the room behind him momentarily and a small smile crept onto his face. "Say, Naruto would you mind talking to my class for a bit now? You did have a… special graduation." Naruto winced at the word special. Mizuki was in critical condition and could very well have died if Naruto had delivered even one more punch to his ex-teacher.

Iruka continued on with a gentler tone. "You could maybe talk to them about what it means to be a ninja. If you paid any attention in my classes you should be able to."

Naruto scratched the back of his head sheepishly, past unease temporarily forgotten. "Uh Iruka-sensei, I don't really… know what it means yet… eventually sure but not now I guess…."

Iruka sighed. "Great just great, I was hoping that I would be able to get this class into the shinobi spirit they need to pass but now…." After trailing off Iruka started mumbling about how they were his worst class but they were soooo nice. He even went so far as to start contemplating suicide for his "great failure as a teacher."

Naruto knew Iruka was laying on the dramatics just to get him to talk to the brats. That didn't stop him from caving very quickly. "Fine," Iruka smirked. "In about a month I'll do it. I mean, the greatest Hokage ever has to have an awesome first speech! Even if it is to a bunch of brats," he finished angrily.

"Alright, I suppose that would work, just don't go back on your word!"

"Yes Sir!" Naruto grinned at Iruka as the chuunin opened the door to his classroom At that moment Naruto's heart stopped. His hand reached out and grabbed Iruka's.

He raised a shaking finger at the _thing_ crouched by the window. "What the hell is that thing Iruka-sensei?" His voice shook and panic could be felt emanating from his voice.

Iruka's brow furrowed in surprise and concentration as he stared at what had made Naruto so scared. "Naruto what are you talking about? There's nothing there but the window and the storm."

Naruto could feel the air temperature drop as the thing turned its black lifeless head to stare into Naruto's eyes. Deep dark empty sockets gazed with passive anger directly at Naruto, while blood red kanji flashed across the creature's head. The creatures head quirked to the side and whisps of blackness began to edge around the corners of the classroom towards him. The kanji finally settled on one that made Naruto gasp sharply.

It read… _'Death'_

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Gray ash drifted to the ground slowly but steadily in the total darkness. The only source of light came from a glowing cigarette hanging suspended in mid air. You couldn't see the person who currently had it clutched in between his teeth. This was the kind of place where no light can possibly penetrate, no matter how strong.

The air was dead and seemed to weigh oppressively on the figure holding the cigarette. A crunching sound was heard before the person started walking through the darkness.

It was a wonder he could even see where he was going, then again perhaps he didn't. The smoldering light bobbed up and down as the crunching synchronized with each bob. The person did not stumble once. Whatever ground he traversed over was definitely hard going but he still moved effortlessly through the piles. The crunching comes again but this time with a snap.

It's the sound of a bone breaking. That one snap echoes throughout the entire blackness that surrounds and encompasses this world. Traveling on into the darkness the sound does not end it only fades.

He stops moving. The crunches have stopped and so has the constant bobbing of the cigarette. Years, months, days, seconds pass. It's impossible to tell in the darkness. Slowly though out of the blackness comes a pale gray crackling image.

It stops in front of the man and hovers in the air for a moment.

A voice crackles out from the image. "**E**x**p**la**na**tio**n**?"

The answer comes quietly. "A Dual-Signature."

The crackling patch of gray light gives off a sense of confusion. "**U**n**lik**el**y**."

Silence is the image's answer.

"**In**ve**sti**ga**te**." A pause carries between the two. "**Is **i**t** **R**a**i**n?"

The cigarette is extinguished. "Yeah…."

"U**nde**rst**oo**d. **Insti**gate T**rans**it?"

An immense aura of reluctance sweeps out from the figure in the dark. "Ug, alright…."

The gray light fades and vanishes from the darkness. No fresh cigarette is struck, the figure waits.

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Pairings are flexible and you can vote on pretty much anything except for the harem, the older women, and the filler girls. This isn't to be mean; it's just that I don't think I could accurately depict relationships in those situations.

(1) The phrase 'with the force of an angry demon fox' was coined by A True Radical Dreamer from the story Bushido No Jutsu.

Until I find time to work again… please review. (it's that button in the bottom left corner of the page :) )

-Scoperous


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